Courtesy of Matthew Perry/Instagram; Getty Images
Matthew Perry’s Final Instagram Post Was Photo of Him in Hot Tub 5 Days Before Reported Drowning
Five days before his death, Matthew Perry posted on Instagram for what would be the last time. The actor’s final photo featured him looking relaxed while soaking in a hot tub. He reportedly died from an apparent drowning in the jacuzzi on Saturday, October 28, 2023.
“Oh, so warm water swirling around makes you feel good?” he captioned the image. “I’m Mattman.” The image was taken at night, with Matthew wearing big headphones as he took in the sights around him.
The Friends alum, who was 54 at the time of his death, also documented time spent with his father, John Bennett, on Instagram before he died. On October 15, he posted a rare photo of them together.
“Here is me, and my father John, both holding a beverage,” Matthew wrote with the picture. John, 82, is also an actor and Friends fans will remember that he starred in a season 4 episode of the show in 1998. He played the father of Joshua Burgin (Tate Donovan), who was dating Jennifer Aniston’s character, Rachel Green, on the show.
First responders were dispatched to Matthew’s home after a call for cardiac arrest, according to TMZ. The site reports that there were no drugs found at the scene of the apparent drowning and that there was no foul play suspected.
Matthew was best known for his role as Chandler Bing on Friends, as well as starring in movies like Fools Rush In and 17 Again. He got together with his Friends cast members in 2021 for a long-awaited reunion special, which featured the stars reminiscing about their time on the sitcom.
While Matthew was doing less acting in recent years, he did publish a bestselling memoir – Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing – in 2022. He was very open about his past struggle with drug addiction in the book. “I wanted to share when I was safe from going into the dark side again,” Matt explained to PEOPLE. “I had to wait until I was pretty safely sober – and away from the active disease of alcoholism and addiction – to write it all down. I was pretty certain that it would help people if I did.”
Tributes began pouring in for Matthew immediately after news of his death broke. However, the other main Friends cast members have not publicly commented on this immense loss just yet.
Maggie Wheeler, who played Chandler’s on/off love interest, Janice, was one of the first costars to speak out publicly about Matthew’s death. “What a loss,” she wrote on Instagram. “The world will miss you Matthew Perry. The joy you brought to so many in your too short lifetime will live on. I feel so very blessed by every creative moment we shared.”
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